Pastor Among Suspects In Illegal Snake Bust

[DeSwiss]

Pastor among suspects in illegal snake bust

By Roger Alford, Associated Press Writer
July 11, 2008



FRANKFORT, Ky.— The pastor of a Kentucky church that handles snakes in religious rites was among 10 people arrested by wildlife officers in a crackdown on the venomous snake trade. More than 100 snakes, many of them deadly, were confiscated in the undercover sting after Thursday's arrests, said Col. Bob Milligan, director of law enforcement for Kentucky Fish and Wildlife. Most were taken from the Middlesboro home of Gregory James Coots, including 42 copperheads, 11 timber rattlesnakes, three cottonmouth water moccasins, a western diamondback rattlesnake, two cobras and a puff adder.

Handling snakes is practiced in a handful of fundamentalist churches across Appalachia, based on the interpretation of Bible verses saying true believers can take up serpents without being harmed. The practice is illegal in most states, including Kentucky. Coots, 36, is pastor of the Full Gospel Tabernacle in Jesus Name in Middlesboro, where a Tennessee woman died after being bitten by a rattlesnake during a service in 1995. Her husband died three years later when he was bitten by a snake in northeastern Alabama.

Coots was charged Thursday with buying, selling and possessing illegal reptiles. He had no listed telephone number and couldn't be reached for comment. There was no phone listing for the church. "It is disturbing to me that individuals would keep such dangerous wildlife in their homes and in neighborhoods where they put their families, visitors and neighbors at such high risk," Milligan said. The snakes, plus one alligator, were turned over to the nonprofit Kentucky Reptile Zoo in Slade. Most appeared to have been captured from the wild, with some imported from Asia and Africa. Zoo Director Jim Harrison said some of the animals would likely have become exotic pets had they not been seized. "There's been a large trade in exotics for years," he said. "Some people are just fascinated with them."

Undercover officers purchased more than 200 illegal reptiles during the investigation, some of which were advertised for sale on Web sites. One such Web site lists copperheads for $50 each and cobras for $450. "You can purchase anything off the Internet except common sense," Harrison said. "A venomous snake isn't a pet. You don't play with it. If you do, you're an idiot."

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/07/11/pastor_among_suspects_in_illegal_snake_bust/?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Latest+news">LINK

- An alligator? I knew about the snakes, but alligators?!?!?!

Maybe that one was just for some shoes or something.....
============================================================================================================================
DeSwiss


http://www.atheisttoolbox.com/">The Atheist Toolbox

[pennylane100]

1. Of course it would seem natural that a paster would be involved.

It seems that many of our problems in today" s world come from people sprouting the word of god. If nobody listened, maybe we would have peace on earth.

[DeSwiss]

2. Well, I'm doing my part.....

...I always ignore them.

:)

[pnorman]

3. It's truly maddening trying to read something, when you have to scroll back & forth on each line.

There is NO criticism intended towards the OP, as I don't know how to correct that awkward copy/paste operation. But here's a URL where it can be read with ease: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/07/11/national/a183128D08.DTL

pnorman

[TlalocW]

4. You know the Bible also has a bit in it where God

Told Abraham to take his son to the top of a mountain and sacrifice him, and right before the knife went in, God told Abraham not to do it as it had just been a test of Abraham's faith. Why aren't these people dragging their sons to the nearest hill as a sacrifice, expecting God to tell them not to do it?

As for the alligators, if these in-bred yokels have to show each other how "holy" they are in front of each other by handling venomous snakes then chances are they thought the alligator was, "'un of 'em new-fangled snakes wit' th' legs n' all."

TlalocW